The standard type of cigarette carton used in the United States holds ten packages of cigarettes arranged in two parallel rows of five. The longest end dimension of each package extends lengthwise of the carton.
Many brands of cigarettes are on the market with non-standard arrays of packages in cartons. For example, one brand is sold in the carton with one row of ten packages, with the long end dimension of each package crosswise of the carton. Another brand is sold in a carton of twenty packages located in four rows of five packages each.
Cigarette taxes vary considerably between states and between countries. The taxes are usually based on the retail price of the cigarettes. Consequently, the only practical place to apply tax stamps is the premises of a distributor in the state or country where the cigarettes are to be sold at retail. High speed machines are available to apply stamps to cigarette packages in the standard two by five carton, as disclosed in tne copending U.S. patent application of Kimball et al., Ser. No. 587,375, filed Mar. 8, 1984.
The cigarettes in non-standard cartons are commonly sold in considerably lower volume than the standard cartons. The non-standard cartons do not fit in the available high speed automatic tax stamp applying machines. The common practice has been for an employee applying tax stamps to packages in a non-standard carton to use a hand iron in one hand and to supply stamps or decals from a sheet with the other hand. The process is slow and tedious.
The stamp applying apparatus of the Graziano and Kirk application, identified above, is intended for small volume operations, including those employing non-standard or standard cartons. The cartons are moved through the machine by hand. The stamps are fed, one at a time, by a power actuated feed mechanism. The operation of the stamp feeding mechanism is controlled by a manually operated switch. An elongated guide is provided for the cartons of cigarettes being advanced through the machine.